Abstract: Workplace bullying is defined as negative behaviors directed at organizational members
or their work context that occur regularly and repeatedly over a period of time.
Employees’ perceptions of psychosocial safety climate, workplace bullying victimization,
and workplace bullying perpetration were assessed within a sample of nearly 5,000 workers.
Linear and nonlinear approaches were applied in order to model both continuous and sudden changes
in workplace bullying. More specifically, the present study examines whether a
nonlinear dynamical systems model (i.e., a cusp catastrophe model) is superior to the
linear combination of variables for predicting the effect of psychosocial safety climate
and workplace bullying victimization on workplace bullying perpetration.
According to the AICc, and BIC indices, the linear regression model fits the
data better than the cusp catastrophe model. The study concludes that some phenomena,
especially unhealthy behaviors at work (like workplace bullying), may be better studied using
linear approaches as opposed to nonlinear dynamical systems models. This can be explained
through the healthy variability hypothesis, which argues that positive organizational behavior
is likely to present nonlinear behavior, while a decrease in such variability may indicate the
occurrence of negative behaviors at work.